Dockworkers help place a shipping container in a Hong Kong terminal. Slowing growth in China and the US, and the threat of a widening sovereign debt crisis in Europe, are crimpling growth in exports. Paul Hilton / Bloomberg

Overseas shipments gain 9.2% YoY in June to HK$292b, down from 10.1% in May

Hong Kong's export growth slowed in June as demand from the US dropped and sales to the mainland and Europe climbed "moderately".

Overseas shipments gained 9.2 percent from a year earlier to HK$292 billion ($37.5 billion), the government said on its website on Thursday. That was more than the median 8.4 percent forecast of 11 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Export growth rebounded to 10.1 percent in May from a 17-month low of 4.1 percent the previous month.

Slowing growth in China and the US, and the threat of a widening sovereign debt crisis in Europe, is crimpling growth in exports. The rebound in trade with Japan after disruption caused by March's earthquake and nuclear crisis will fade, the government said on Thursday.

"The US and Europe are important markets for Hong Kong's exports," Joanne Yim, Hong Kong-based chief economist at Hang Seng Bank Ltd, said before the announcement. "Governments are retrenching, cutting spending and raising taxes to restore fiscal discipline which will affect consumer and investment demand."

Imports increased 11.5 percent in June from a year earlier after a 13 percent gain in May, leaving a trade deficit of HK$40.3 billion, Thursday's report showed.

Exports to the mainland, the biggest destination for shipments through Hong Kong, climbed 6 percent after an 8.8 percent gain in May, the government said. Sales to the US declined 5.2 percent while exports to Japan climbed 11.1 percent from a year earlier compared with a drop of 6.1 percent the previous month.

Production at Canon Inc, the world's largest camera maker, resumed in all its factories in Japan in June, the company said in a statement on July 25. Nissan Motor Co, that nation's second-biggest carmaker, on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as its operations recovered after March's earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis.

Export growth from Asia-Pacific developing nations may moderate this year as slowdowns in advanced economies threaten demand, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific said in a report this week.

It's unlikely the economies "can completely decouple" from the rest of the world although rising trade within the Asia region will help sustain expansion in shipments, the agency said.

The US economy, the world's biggest, grew at a slower pace in more parts of the country since the beginning of June as shoppers restrained spending and factory production eased, the US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Growth in loans to households and companies in the 17-nation euro area slowed last month as the region's fiscal crisis damped demand for credit, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday.

Hong Kong's export growth moderated to the slowest pace since November 2009 in April as the disaster in Japan reduced shipments of parts. Most of Japan's manufacturers will resume full production by September, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said last month.

The council raised its forecast for the city's full-year export growth to 12 percent from 8 percent on June 16, citing stronger-than-expected demand for electronics and higher export prices because of increased raw material and labor costs in China.

Bloomberg

(HK Edition 07/29/2011 page2)